Breathtaking progress in life sciences has brought us innovations such as high-throughput and individually affordable genomic sequencing as well as next-generation flow cytometry that can phenotype dissociated cells for their expression of dozens of markers simultaneously.

In part I we examined the evolution of outsourcing in drug discovery. In part II we will examine with deeper focus the specific reasons why it is beneficial to outsource scientific experiments. Research organizations and even individual researchers outsource for a variety of reasons, but here are just a few.

 A recent white paper was released that traces the trajectory over the last ten years of 120 independent for-profit startups in the field of research workflows and scholarly communication. The author, Yvonne Campfens, presented the report at the Academic Publishing in Europe (APE) Conference held January 15-16, 2019 in Berlin.

There are hundreds of thousands of human samples currently stored in the UK; the research questions they could address are endless. It has been well documented that human samples are excellent experimental models; their use early in drug development can decrease the risk of failed progression into Phase I and II trials.  

As a relatively new means of conducting research in the life sciences, RWE, or real-world evidence, is data that comes from “real world settings” such as a clinical practice. Studies driven by real world evidence, or real-world data (RWD), can utilize data from medical records or claims databases, be conducted prospectively in observational studies or adhere to a mixed, hybrid-design approach.